The Cowichan Valley Capitals have been busy this off-season. The summer months have seen several new players join the team and on June 25, the Capitals also hired a new head coach and general manager.
The Capitals brought in Cam Keith as their new bench boss. He was the GM and head coach for the Surrey Eagles for the last five years and just came off winning the 2024 Fred Page Cup with them.
This article covers the off-season player additions, but before that, I will look at Keith’s coaching history from the ECHL to the British Columbia Hockey League.
From Cincinnati to Duncan
After his playing career ended in Germany in 2014, Keith joined the coaching staff of the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. He served as an assistant coach with Cincinnati for two seasons from 2014 to 2016. Before the 2016-17 season, the product of Nelson, B.C. left the Cyclones to join the Trail Smoke Eaters.
Keith was the head coach and general manager of the Smoke Eaters for a pair of seasons before being let go in April 2018. Two months later, he was hired as an assistant coach for the Chilliwack Chiefs.
After one season in Chilliwack, Keith moved on to Surrey as head coach and associate general manager of the Eagles. In time for the 2022-23 season, Keith took on the role of Eagles general manager while remaining the club’s head coach.
After resigning from the Eagles this past June, Keith issued a statement, citing a desire to be closer to family. He now takes over the Capitals – the team he helped eliminate in the first round of the 2024 BCHL playoffs.
Trades
In June, the Capitals swung two trades. The first trade involved the Sherwood Park Crusaders and the second involved the Prince George Spruce Kings.
In the first trade, Cowichan Valley grabbed future considerations and forward Linden Burrett from the Crusaders for forward Luke Lavery, who’s since been traded to Coquitlam and then onto Nanaimo. In the second deal, the Capitals picked up forward Luca Primerano from the Spruce Kings for forward Brock Cummings and defender Eddie Romano.
In July, the Capitals sent forward Keeghan Dunn to the Vernon Vipers for future considerations. Keith also moved defender Jonathan Lanza to his former team in Surrey for forward Ryan Comishock. The Caps then traded forward Ethan Dekay to the Okotoks Oilers for forward Hayden Fechner.
Burrett played at the U15, U17, and U18 prep levels in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League before joining the Vernon Vipers full-time last season. He had a goal and four assists in 36 games. Vernon had traded him to Sherwood Park earlier in the off-season.
Like Burrett, Primerano also played in the CSSHL at the Burnaby Winter Club before starting his junior hockey career. For the last two seasons, he has played for the Spruce Kings, posting 17 goals and 31 assists in 94 games. Primerano is committed to the University of New Hampshire for 2025-26.
Comishock split last season between the Eagles and the Lone Star Brahmas of the North American Hockey League. He is a product of the prestigious Shattuck St. Mary’s hockey program, playing there for four seasons from 2018 to 2022.
Fechner, who played his minor hockey at the South Side Athletic Club in Edmonton before his junior hockey journey began in 2021, had 11 goals and 13 assists in 43 games with Okotoks split between its time in the BCHL and Alberta Junior Hockey League last season.
Rebuilding the Caps roster
The first two signings for Cowichan Valley come from the Los Angeles Jr. Kings youth hockey organization — forward Trace Frieden and defender James Russell.
Frieden is an offensive forward who suited up for three different teams last season, including the Jr. Kings 16U AAA squad. He had 26 goals and 33 assists for 59 points in 50 games for them while adding seven points in six games for JSerra Catholic High in U.S. High School hockey. Frieden also played for the Long Island Gulls 16U AAA team, but there aren’t stats available online for those appearances.
As for Russell, he’s a point-producing defender. He led all blueliners in scoring on the Jr. Kings in 2023-24, finishing with 16 goals and 40 assists for 46 points in 72 games. Like Frieden, Russell also got into some games with JSerra Catholic High and posted six goals and five assists for 11 points in 11 outings. He is committed to the College of the Holy Cross starting next September.
Frieden and Russell aren’t the only players recruited from the same team as the Capitals recruited forwards Benjamin Portner and Brayden Sinclair from the Battlefords North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
Portner is a veteran junior player who spent one season in the SJHL with the North Stars and before that, one season in the National Collegiate Development Conference with the Twin City Thunder. He was second in scoring for Battlefords in 2023-24 with 28 goals and 41 assists for 69 points in 50 games.
Before going to Battlefords last summer, Sinclair had a two-game cup of coffee with the Merritt Centennials in 2022-23 but spent most of that season with the Delta Ice Hawks of the Pacific Junior Hockey League. As a rookie last season, he had a respectable 16 goals and 24 assists for 40 points in 41 games with the North Stars.
Coming from the NAHL’s Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks is defender Cam Charron, who was developed within the Maine Nordiques youth hockey club. He started last season with the Nordiques of the NAHL before joining the Jr. Hat Tricks and finished with a combined two goals and 22 assists in 51 games. From 2020 through 2023, Charron played first for the U16 Nordiques and then the U18 team.
After recruiting Charron, Cowichan Valley signed forward Jordan Bax. Bax spent last season with the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and was one point off the team-scoring lead with 21 goals and 26 assists for 47 points in 56 games. In 2022-23, Bax played for the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s French River Rapids.
Cowichan Valley has also added defender Matthew Thomas to its blue line. Thomas is a three-year junior A veteran. Last season, he split time in the Central Canada Hockey League with the Kemptville 73’s and in the Ontario Junior Hockey League with the Leamington Flyers. He had 14 points in 32 games with Kemptville and 19 points in 20 games with Leamington.
The Caps continued to mine talent from Ontario with the addition of forward Tommy Karmiris. Karmiris put up 23 goals and 23 assists to total 46 points in 44 games with the OJHL’s Burlington Cougars in 2023-24. He spent the previous season with the Cobourg Cougars of the OJHL before being traded to Burlington last July.
Coming from the Melville Millionaires of the SJHL is forward Kole Keen. He tallied 10 goals and 25 assists for 35 points in 52 games as a rookie with the Mills last season. Keen is a product of the Estevan Bears U18 AAA program in the Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League.
The upcoming season
On Sept. 20, the Capitals open the 2023-24 season at home against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks and wrap it up on March 30 at home against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
The Capitals don’t play any games against the five Alberta-based teams but they do travel to the BCHL’s northernmost point in Prince George to play the Spruce Kings. The furthest east that Cowichan Valley travels is to Cranbrook to face the Bucks.
